By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – Any Kentucky basketball fan can tell you about the most devastating loss in school history.
1992 NCAA East Regional finals. Duke’s Grant Hill throws a three-quarter court inbounds pass, teammate Christian Laettner catches it and hits a 15-foot foul line turnaround jumper for a 104-103 victory as time expires.
Well, it took almost three and a half decades, but the basketball gods paid back Kentucky here on Wednesday night.
UK’s Colin Chandler heaved a three-quarter court pass to teammate Malachi Moreno, who caught it just over the outstretched hands of LSU’s Rob Miller III and swished a 17-foot turnaround buzzer-beating game-winner for a 75-74 SEC victory over the Tigers in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“It’s like being a little kid in your backyard again,” said Moreno, a 7-foot freshman forward who played the last 8:56 with four fouls and finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds. “Those are the kind of shots you practice because you just want to kind of have that feeling. But that doesn’t happen if we don’t come out with the intensity we had in the second half.”
It was a gut-wrenching loss for LSU head coach Matt McMahon, who’s now 57-58 (14-43 in SEC) in four seasons with the Tigers. His job security is now dwindling with each loss. LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry told the Baton Rouge Advocate that McMahon was informed before the season that the Tigers needed to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2022.
The Tigers (12-5, 0-4 in the SEC), the only winless team in league play, have yet to play a conference game with starting point guard Dedan Thomas. He suffered a lower leg injury on Jan. 2 and hasn’t been cleared for games.
“We had our two best practices of the year on Monday and Tuesday,” McMahon said. “The first half defensive effort by our players was just phenomenal.
“Then, in the second half, tremendous credit to Kentucky. They really got going from behind the three-point line, and we could not get enough stops there. All that said, you’re in position to win the game, and unfortunately, I couldn’t help get our guys across the finish line there.”
The Tigers, led by Marquel Sutton and Max McKinnon with 16 points apiece, roared out of the gate for an 18-3 lead with 11:25 left in the first half. They led 38-22 at halftime.
Two McKinnon free throws in the first minute of the second half pushed LSU’s lead to 18 points. But by the halfway point of the second half, the Tigers’ lead had been reduced to single digits.
“Our response to the physicality of the game was poor in the first half,” said UK head coach Mark Pope, whose team improved to 11-6 overall and 2-2 in the SEC after a 0-2 start. “Our guys did a great job in the second half, responding and engaging in a game that is like a fist fight. Our guys were much more forceful.”
The Wildcats trailed by 65-56 with 6:34 left when they went on a 13-2 run to take their first lead of the game at 69-68 with 3:55 left.
After UK made just 2 of 12 3-pointers in the first half, they hit 8 of 11 in the second half, including two by point guard Denzel Aberdeen. He scored all of his 17 points in the second half, sharing the scoring load with Otega Oweh, who finished with 21 points.
“Shout out to Coach Pope,” Aberdeen said. “He got on me at halftime. Told me to be aggressive. Be yourself. My teammates found me in the right spots. That got me going, and then that opened up for everybody else. We got some open ball screens for the middle of the court that led to downhill drives and some kickouts (to 3-point shooters).”
Miller’s tip-in to regain the lead for the Tigers at 70-69 with 3:29 left, but the home team could manage only four McKinnon free throws the rest of the way.
LSU had a chance to stretch its lead to 76-73 with 1.8 seconds left. When Pablo Tamba missed both free throws, UK’s Oweh rebounded the second miss, and the Wildcats immediately called a timeout with 1.6 seconds left.
“We just had a couple of options, but we were really going to try and get Otega a catch and maybe squeeze in a dribble (before a shot),” UK’s Pope said. “We drew it up, and we had a crossing pattern at the top (of the key) as a default.
“And as we walked out of the timeout, I grabbed Malachi. I’m like, `Hey, if we overthrow this, just catch it and go shoot it.’”
On the LSU defensive end, the instructions were simple.
“Keep everything in front of us, play hard to the end, and no fouls,” Tigers’ guard Rashad King. said. “It was just tough, tough shot.”
Chandler’s inbounds pass had to clear over LSU’s 6-10 Sutton. But he delivered a perfect strike to Moreno, who turned just inside the top of the key and delivered a quick deposit jumper for the win.
“There were 15 times in the second half where we could have folded, and there were more than that in the first,” Pope said. “But they (his team) just kept hammering away.”
LSU’s next three games – home Saturday vs. Missouri, followed by road games Tuesday at defending national champ No. 19 Florida and next Saturday at No. 17 Arkansas – are against teams with a cumulative record of 38-15 overall and 9-3 in the SEC.
Any chance of LSU winning is based on when Thomas returns to game action.
“He’s gone from clearly being out to doubtful,” McMahon said of Thomas. “He’s making great progress. He’s still day to day. He started back running and jumping. He’d give anything to be on the floor. He just can’t cut and jump and do everything at full speed that would allow him to get back out there.
“I know he wants to be on the floor. Hopefully it’ll be sooner than later, but I’m not trying to duck the question. I just don’t have a timeline other than day to day.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com